The lizardman went flying through the air, as Dustin grabbed its leg and threw it backwards. It landed heavily on its back, and promptly had another one land on it, from near Olivia. Ducking under a swung spear, he glanced at her. She had something on her hands that were slicing through the hides of the lizards before her, like they were made of butter.

“Woah! How’d you do that?” he called, punching another one in the face.

“It’s a modified crystal plate over my hands,” she called back, slashing another one across the face, then kicking at one who got too close behind her.

“That’s cool!” he almost sang, dodging the club of a spectacularly tall lizardman, and kicking its legs out from under it.

“Oh, go sing to someone else!” she shouted, ducking a blow, then upper cutting the lizard, slicing off part of his face.

“You’re so cool,” he sang out loud, horribly off key, as he punched one, then kicked another, before stepping back to avoid a spear to the face.

“I’d be a fool,” he continued, as she started to laugh, twisting to avoid another spear, grabbing it when the lizard overextended, and jerked it off its feet.

“To leave this school, as a rule!” he ended the song on a high note, that made the lizardmen grimace, and attack him even harder. Olivia smashed two lizardmen together, shaking her head at his impromptu song.

“You need lessons!”

Grinning, he turned his attention to his PED.

“Initiate temporary modified evolution, crystal plate over each hand. I want the edge of the plate to be sharp. Name it ‘Bladehands’.” He dodged another attack, letting it hit the big guy, who was now laying on the ground, looking really ticked.

(TEMPORARY EVOLUTION ‘BLADEHANDS’ INITIATED.)

Being able to envision what he wanted, helped immensely, and he was really glad he had incorporated that into the last upgrade.

As he stepped back to avoid the swing of another club, his fingers became rigid and fused together as a crystal plate grew over them, incorporating his claws into the edge, so that the plate had an almost ridged appearance. It shone in the light, and he grinned. It was time to get busy cutting and slashing.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)

As body after body fell, he couldn’t help thinking about how much this was like the time he got stuck in a brawl between two street gangs. They both thought he was on the other side, making every attempt to kill him as they attacked each other. They had used bats and sticks, chains, sharp broken bottles, whatever they could find. He survived only because his dad showed up to save him.

He sobered as he remembered, he wasn’t allowed outside to play after that, and then they moved a couple of weeks later. He suddenly missed his dad.

As he weaved through the tangled mess of lizardmen trying to kill him, he also managed to sneak glances at Olivia. Her body count was even higher than his, but she had admitted to killing things for six years straight.

ROAR!

All of the lizardmen who were able, suddenly turned tail and fled the clearing. Those who couldn’t tried to crawl.

Out of the brush, a creature Dustin had never seen before, emerged. Its head was triangular, with red, slitted eyes. Sparse yellow fur covered its body, with nasty, pus-filled sores leaking orangish brown goo. Its mouth was stretched wide, exposing teeth too large to contain, resulting in thick strands of drool dripping from its mouth. It gazed down at the lizardman who lay on the ground before it, trying to crawl away, despite its wounds.

The crystal prince and Olivia, backed up to him, stepping over the fallen bodies of the lizardmen.

“I think now would be an excellent time to retreat,” said the prince.

“I thought Josagn never retreated,” replied Dustin, eyeing the twenty-foot tall beast.

“Dustin, if this is what happens when you sing, you are never allowed to sing ever again.” Olivia didn’t spare him a glance as the thing reached down to the lizardman and bit it in two. Shaking its head, like a dog with a rag toy, it flung the top half through the air, intestines and guts flying out everywhere, like confetti.

“I apologize. Did you see those fangs?” Dustin was torn between the huge fangs and dripping sores, and the urge to get a sample from it. Somehow, he didn’t think biting it would be a good idea, though.

“This thing might be able to kill us, even me. I was told to retreat if this thing showed up. It’s a plague bringer.” The prince continued to move away from it, drawing closer to the bushes.

“That explains the weeping sores. Let’s back away slowly, and hope it doesn’t follow us. There should be enough lizards laying around to distract it.”

After thinking a few seconds more, he finally agreed with them, and started moving away as well. This sucked, but he wasn’t sure that he could fight off the plague. He knew that he was immune to venom, but not disease. Was it even that important? His goal was to get off this damn planet. Searching for new genetic material would cause him to take longer meeting that goal.

“End temporary evolution,” he said to the PED, as he reached the bushes.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION: END TEMPORARY EVOLUTION.)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)

Moving as quickly and quietly as they could, they started making good progress towards the shuttle station. Maybe, just maybe they could get there without any other interruptions.

“You really are a horrible singer,” declared the prince, matter-of-factly.

“Shut up,” he growled, looking over at Olivia.

She wasn’t paying attention, because those other interruptions he was trying to avoid, had arrived. Six-legged lizards, with black and yellow frills all around their faces and down their necks, scurried towards them. A few had hands and feet, of lizardmen, clutched in their jaws.

“They can’t hurt us,” Dustin said, starting to jog again. If any got close enough to kick, he did, and they hissed at him.

Plumes of black mist seeped out of their mouths, and he decided he really didn’t want anything to do with them. They ran faster, with Dustin picking up the prince, trying to outrun them. Strangely enough, with six legs, they were able to keep up pretty well.